In case you missed earlier notices about it, please take a look at the resources created for the Great Lakes, Great Read project, led by the Wisconsin Water Library at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  Many of you have interacted with the wonderful librarian there, Anne Moser.  Check out the latest project, which includes fun programming ideas for kids and adults, tie-ins to the Wisconsin Science Festival, and more!  Here is what’s new with this project:

The Great Lakes, Great Read website is now a robust, interactive resource.

Meet the authors webinar.
Both authors will be featured in a free webinar series beginning in late September. All events will start at 6:00 p.m. central and are open to the public. Mark your calendar for September 25, October 2 and October 9. Don’t forget to register.

.. and in person
The authors will be traveling to the Green Bay area in November so please be sure to follow us on Facebook.

Read the book? Planned a program?

We would love to hear. Tell us what you think through our feedback forms.

Whether you are already planning fall programs and events or you are looking for a few additional activities to make your summer programs pop, don’t forget about the programming kits available to libraries through Lend Items.  I’ll be featuring a few of the kits available from IFLS and WVLS in a monthly blog feature.  If you haven’t yet signed up for a Lend Items account, or want more information on how to use Lend Items, check out the Kits page on the IFLS website!

First up, some great resources owned by IFLS for Early Childhood! These are only a few of the wonderful kits available to borrow that are amazing for working with younger kids!  More to come, or sign up and explore the site!

[NEW] Early Childhood Liquid Floor Tiles:  This is 4 tiles to put on the floor for stepping on and touching–the liquid inside squishes around and looks super cool.  Laura Maki from Roberts used them recently and says:  “Awesome sensory for all ages! Great for story time or play areas for kids. Even the parents think they’re fun :)”

 

[NEW] Early Childhood Obstacle Courses:  More sensory fun for all ages, these could be very fun for school age kids, too.  Tunnels, buckets, hoops, activity dice, soft balls, stepping stones, and more.  For extra fun, borrow the floor tiles with them!

Early Childhood Board Book Kits:  Twenty copies of the same board book for one-on-one/unison reading!  Titles include American Babies; Machines at Work; Happy Bird Day; Tickle My Ears; Touch the Brightest Star; and many more!

Programming Kit:  Community Family Outreach Event Booth Kit:  Did you get asked to show up at Preschool Screening, Back to School Night, or Kids Night Out?  This kit might help you create a fun and interactive booth!  Includes things to make your display table more fun and professional, including display boards and table cloth; a huge Libby app banner; a Plinko board; stepping stones; and more!

 

It has been more than a minute since I committed to posting regularly, or at least semi-regularly, on this blog.  Sometime during the pandemic, I let it go.  Now, as I try to navigate all the giant rivers of information and ideas that are rushing towards me and figure out how best to curate it in manageable bites for the people who are out there providing services to kids, teens, families, and community partners, I’m thinking that going back to the blog is maybe my best bet.  I don’t want to miss my chance to share out some of the information, and I also don’t want to make things overwhelming.  Let’s hope this method works better.  I’m very interested in your feedback!

Today’s tidbit:  Colorado Libraries for Early Literacy (CLEL) is open to people outside of Colorado.  You may remember them from the CLEL Bell Book Awards for books that promote the five early literacy practices (Talk, Sing, Read, Write, Play).  Anyone can become a member of CLEL, and it is free!

These wonderful folks at CLEL have created an opportunity to join in a Project READY Minicourse, designed specifically for busy public library staff who focus on early childhood work.  A task force of youth librarians went through all the content with a fine-toothed comb and refined the amount of content significantly, to make working through and completing the minicourse attainable for library staff who are committed to equity work but who do not have the capacity to commit to the full Project READY curriculum.   If all goes to plan, they will be creating cohorts of 5-8 people to dig into the content together.  Participants can expect to spend approximately 2 hours a week, including individual work and group meetings,  from September through March, with a break during the month of December.

Interested in participating? Please fill out this interest form indicating your preferences. Please note that this interest form is NOT a commitment to participate, but will help them plan cohort offerings. Be sure to become a member of CLEL before you sign up!

Contents:

• New Lend Items Kits
• Scholarships Available to Attend ALSC National Institute
• Collaborative Summer Library Program—Free Virtual Author Presentations
• Survey about Teen Anti-Book Ban Programs
• Return of the Blog

New Lend Items Kits

Our neighbors and partners the Wisconsin Valley Library System have some amazing new resources available on Lend-Items!  You can find Geoboards, KEVA Structures building planks, and several math kits (shapes, sorting and patterns, counting and numbers).   Add this to various technology and early literacy kits, plus old-fashioned low-take maker kits, and you have a bunch of programs just waiting to happen!  Learn more about creating a Lend Items Account and let me know if you have any questions.

Scholarships Available to Attend ALSC National Institute in Denver

You are spending the summer creating adventures for the kids, teens, and families in your community…now’s your chance to take a learning adventure of your own!  You can apply by June 24 for a scholarship to attend the National Institute of the Association for Library Services to Children in Denver in September.  Find out more in this  information sheet and apply here.  Let me know if you have any questions!

Collaborative Summer Library Program—Free Virtual Author Presentations!

CSLP members (that’s all of us!) will receive free access to two live-streamed author events, one with Kate DiCamillo about her Mercy Watson series (July 9, 1:00-1:30) and one with Dan Santat about his graphic memoir A First Time for Everything (July 30, 1:00-1:45).  More information is coming soon about these events and how to access them from the folks at CSLP.  You can sign up for the monthly newsletter to keep track of this and other resources!

Survey about teen anti-book ban programs from Kelly Jensen

“Library workers! I’d love your input in this survey. Its purpose is to help develop a teen anti-book ban/intellectual freedom program that could be used at libraries nationwide. Details in the survey–please share as appropriate. Thank you!”

Parenting Resource

University of Wisconsin Madison Extension friends share their new state website with classes and resources that they offer to parents and caregivers.  This could be great to put in a newsletter or share on social media.

Blog come-back

I’m contemplating a return of the Keeping Up with Kids Blog for more timely information sharing starting next week.  I will share round-ups occasionally with links to the blog.  If you have a strong opinion about this, I’d love to hear it.  If you have something to add to the blog, I’d love that, too!

Note from Reb: You’re awesome

I’m hearing so many great stories about the start of summer at many of our libraries. Love that! So while you’re socked-in busy with the start of summer, I thought I’d remind you that you are remarkable. Thanks for all you do. 

Act 150/420 Funding: Submit or lose it!

Only one month left to submit your country reimbursement requests (ACT 150/420) to home and adjacent counties. Don’t delay, submit yours today! For more information on how, view the county funding webpage by the DPI.

If the county clerk (find yours here!) does not receive your request by July 1, they are under no legal obligation to reimburse your library.

Adult Services check-ins are back

We are restarting Adult Services Virtual Check-Ins with IFLS colleagues. Each meeting will have a themed topic but feel free to share, receive feedback, or ask questions about anything adult services related.

Save the following dates to join us:

• August 13, 2-3 pm
• December 5, 12:30-1:30 pm

More information will be shared as the date gets closer but mark your calendars today and save us a spot on your computer screens.
Reach out to me with any questions and I hope to see you then!

2024 DEI Consultant Funding Opportunity – Hire a consultant to help support your organization’s DEI journey!

“Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) work is challenging for many reasons, and getting outside help tailored to your community’s needs often requires money that might not be readily available in your library’s budget.

Wisconsin Libraries Talk About Race and the IDEA Team encourage you to apply for a unique funding opportunity that will support bringing a specialized DEI Consultant into your library to help your team accomplish its desired DEI goals (don’t worry, we can help connect you to the right consultant for your needs). “Consulting” work could mean many things: a presentation at your next Staff In-Service Day; helping reposition your organization to better serve a new segment of your population; conducting a diversity audit of your collection; crafting a diversity statement; just meeting with you or your team to discuss possible projects for your organization – and more!”

Apply for funding, up to $1,000, to support DEI consulting for your library. Applications will be accepted quarterly

• ·                  Q1: June 1-30, 2024;
• ·                  Q2: September 1-30, 2024;
• ·                  Q3: Dec 1-31, 2024;
• ·                  Q4: March 1-31, 2025

More info, and apply here: https://www.wislibidea.com/consulting-grant/ 

Have questions or need help? Contact IDEA Team members Emily Whitmore at ewhitmore@springgreenlibrary.org and Tracy Herold at herold@dcls.info.

Scholarships opportunities: sign up now before you forget

Some very cool summer and early fall scholarship opportunities are here!  Thanks to funding from the Institute for Museum and Library Services funding through the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, IFLS is able to offer full and partial scholarships to some national conferences and some online summer classes. All public library workers in IFLS-land are invited to apply!  Please take a look at the  Information Sheet for all the details, and apply by June 24!  Here’s what you could apply for:

Three National Conferences:

• ·       Play, Make, Learn Conference in Madison, July 18-19
• ·       Association for Rural and Small Libraries Annual Conference, Springfield, MA, September 11-14
• ·       Association for Library Service to Children National Institute in Denver, September 19-21

Four Online Courses from UW Madison’s iSchool Continuing Education

• ·       Strategies for Supervising Part-time Employees, July 1-August 11
• ·       Tackling Tough Work Conversations, July 29-August 25
• ·       Roll with it…Gaming in Libraries, August 5-September 1
• ·       Library Advocacy and Storymaking, August 5-September 1

Please note that we will be offering additional scholarships for the later fall, winter, and spring.  We will award as many scholarships as our funds allow.  Please let me know if you have any questions!

IFLS Libraries: Toot Your Horns

(From the Dept. of Public Instruction)

The DPI is looking to highlight the inspiring work done by our Wisconsin librarians during the summer. If your library or any other library in your network has exciting and/or innovative summer programs, happening as part of your Summer Library Program or not, they’d love to learn more – so we can shout you out! Programs can be all ages, photos are welcomed. 🙂

Libraries should email Beth Tomev at elizabeth.tomev@dpi.wi.gov with information and photos. Please use the subject line Summer Events and Summer Library Program Highlights for DPI to make sure they capture them in their inbox. NOTE: Reb would really appreciate it if you’d cc: her on those emails! Pretty please with sprinkles on top!

Cool opportunity: youth services

Leah shared this information because it is a cool opportunity that just came up!  There may be some group purchase opportunities either coordinated by WiLS or by IFLS.  I will be very interested to learn if any of you are intrigued by this service.  I’ll be attending the webinar and will be sharing more information as it becomes available to me.

TALK (Text and Learn for Kindergarten) is a program that delivers early learning activities several times per week via text messages to caregivers of children under 6, in either English or Spanish.Based on Every Child Ready to Read, TALK activities build pre-literacy skills starting from birth, such as hearing letter sounds, building hand muscles and dexterity, and recognizing letters and numbers. Activities also build STEM and social emotional skills to help parents make sure their children are fully prepared for a successful school experience. Libraries can also use TALK to promote library events.

WiLS is partnering with MCLS to bring this innovative early learning program to Wisconsin libraries. Come join us for an informational webinar to learn all about this exciting, affordable program and how it can work for your patrons!

Webinar Details

• Date & Time: Jun 13, 2024 11:30 AM Central
• Registration Link
• *This webinar will be recorded and delivered to registrants after the session.

End of LearningExpress Library

(from Jen Champoux, BadgerLink Technical Support & Training, Division for Libraries & Technology, WI Department of Public Instruction)

Some of you may have seen recent marketing emails from EBSCO and Gale about LearningExpress Library in Wisconsin going away. This email is a friendly reminder that indeed the BadgerLink collection for Job Skills and Test Preparation is no longer procured, so current access to the eight LearningExpress Library centers available through BadgerLink will end effective July 1, 2024.

For additional updates on the current status of the BadgerLink procurement process, please subscribe to BadgerLink’s newsletter, Bulletin, and see our most recent post.

Reach out to badgerlink@dpi.wi.gov or contact us with any questions!

Passport, Marketing Tea, Facebook weirdness

If you didn’t get your stamp and ink pad for the passport program, submit a HelpDesk ticket please. Some of them went on a little walkabout.

This month’s Marketing Tea tip was how to add a simple animation in Canva. It’s about 7 minutes long. Past Marketing Tea recordings are on the Marketing and Advocacy page.

Britta (New Richmond) has had a couple of Passport Posts identified as spam and blocked. I dug into it, and FB’s usual unhelpfulness continues – I couldn’t find any documentation about that. Has your library experienced something similar? While digging I did find some complaints about FB crashing various servers this weekend.

On the IFLS Calendar

 

Tip Jar!

The Wisconsin Library Buildings & Spaces project is entering its second year. We wish to hear more about what interests YOU so this statewide resource more closely matches our library community’s needs and desires. Your answers will help us refresh and expand the web page content and impact the next steps for the Wisconsin Facilities Assessment!

Click here to take the survey.

Some free books from Leah

We still have 15 paperback copies of Quadzilla Finds His Footing by Green Bay Packers Running Back AJ Dillon to give away to interested libraries.  If you are interested in one of these copies to add to your collection OR give away, please let Leah know (langby@ifls.lib.wi.us).  First come, first serve.

Explore MORE Passport update

• If you didn’t get your passport packet or your stamp and stamp pad, please contact Reb ASAP with a HelpDesk ticket or at kilde@ifls.lib.wi.us.
• Prize details are up on the public-facing page (https://iflsweb.org/exploremore2024/). Reb is working on getting all of your promotional materials up on the toolkit page right now. If you don’t see there now, check back. She’ll be updating that page regularly.

Coming up on the IFLS calendar

See something missing? Submit a HelpDesk ticket. Committee chairs, please add Reb (kilde@ifls.lib.wi.us) to your email list so I can keep up with new meetings, rescheduling, and cancellations.